Categories
Science Secondary

New Resource – Carbon Dioxide in the Atmosphere

Mauna Loa Observatory NOAA

Bringing together learning from biology and chemistry topics in GCSE science, this new resource explores the seasonal cycle in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations as well as the year-on-year increase due to human activities.   

Categories
Climate Change maths Secondary Weather

Maths Resources for Scotland’s Curriculum

maths for planet earth

We are delighted to have worked with Education Scotland to tweak some of our maths resources to align them with Scotland’s Curriculum. 

These resources were developed a couple of years ago in conjunction with MEI, and allow teachers to demonstrate to their students how their maths skills are relevant to their understanding of issues associated with climate change.  

Categories
Extreme weather Geography Secondary Weather

New Animation – Storm Surges

storm surge flood barrier

We are delighted to have worked with Seth Jackson Animation and the staff and students at Boston College to produce a new animation, explaining what factors combine to give us storm surges in the UK, their impacts, adaptations and how climate change will affect them. There’s also a knowledge organiser for students to take notes on and summarise their learning. 

Categories
Schools Science Secondary

Isaac Physics Resources

Isaac Physics logo

Over the course of 2022 we produced questions for Isaac Physics, an online study tool developed by the University of Cambridge. Isaac Physics questions are self marking practice questions for secondary school and undergraduate scientists. 

They cover a diverse range of applications of physics in weather and climate, including sea level rise, radar frequencies,  aerosols, oceanic circulation, tidal barrages etc. 

These questions are now live and fully searchable on the Isaac Physics website. 

Categories
Climate Change Geography Secondary Teaching

New IPCC linked teaching resources

 
We are delighted to have worked with the Royal Geographical Society to produce more climate change teaching resources for A Level geography. These are based on the IPCC Working Group II (Impact, Adaptation and Vulnerability) and WGIII (Mitigation) reports. 
 

Energy Security in Africa

  • The focus of these resources are to explore climate change and energy security in Africa.
  • Hydro electric power has been identified as a more sustainable way for Africa to achieve energy security in the future.
  • Throughout the continent of Africa there are already many hydroelectric power stations, with many more planned over the coming decades.
  • Climate change could potentially impact upon these plans. These resources focus upon that relationship.
 Lesson and Homework Resources

Climate Change in Africa

Africa is one of the lowest contributors to global greenhouse gas emissions, yet key development sectors are already experiencing widespread losses and damages attributed to human-induced climate change.

Students complete a knowledge organiser. 

Extreme Heat in Urban Africa

Climate change has increased heat waves (high confidence) and drought (medium confidence) on land, and doubled the probability of marine heatwaves around most of Africa.

Heat waves on land, in lakes and in the ocean will increase considerably in magnitude and duration with increasing global warming.

Most African countries will enter unprecedented high temperature climates earlier in this century than generally wealthier, higher latitude countries, emphasising the urgency of adaptation measures in Africa.

Lesson and Homework resources

Wildfire

Wildfire is a natural and essential part of many forest, woodland and grassland ecosystems, killing pests, releasing plant seeds to sprout, thinning out small trees and serving other functions essential for ecosystem health. Excessive wildfire, however, can kill people, the smoke can cause breathing illnesses, destroy homes and damage ecosystems.

Students complete a knowledge organiser. 

Categories
Books Secondary

Book Review: Weather, Camera, Action!

Weather, camera, action
 
Weather, Camera, Action

A Meteorologist’s Guide to the Sky

Author:Liam Dutton, Geordano Poloni (illustrator)
Year: 2022
Publisher: Templar books
Suggested age range: 9-12
Price: £16.99

 

Liam Dutton’s new 77 page book is a vibrant weather guide aimed at ‘budding weather presenters and meteorologists’. Rosie, aged 10, wrote:

“I enjoyed reading the Weather, Camera, Action book. I particularly liked learning about different air masses and how wind can bring different weathers to the UK.

If you want to learn about the weather and you are interested in it then I would definitely recommend this book to you, there are some great descriptions and facts in it. It explains climate change and pollution, teaches you about wavelengths and gas molecules and it also taught me that weather can be dangerous such as heat waves, dust storms and tornadoes.

Some younger children may find it difficult to understand because of the hard vocabulary but there are lots of great pictures and diagrams to help them access the book and the text is broken up into chunks, so overall I would recommend this book to older primary school children.”

Although it has an introductory ‘meet the author’ this is not a personal narrative about the weather Liam has experienced and reported. Rather, it takes a fairly standard reference book approach of breaking the book up into 34 two-page topics with a glossary at the end. Topics cover atmospheric features such as the jet stream, clouds, tornadoes, air pollution and sting jets as well as weather charts, forecasts and presenters. So, to be honest, the ‘camera, action!’ bit of the books title is a little lost.

As you’d expect from a book written by a meteorologist, the content is accurate and current with case studies ranging from the historical 1952 smog and 1987 storm to the 2019 European heat wave.

The format is visually appealing, content-rich and accessible without being cluttered or confusing.

It could be argued that, for a generation that is very unlikely to access weather forecasts on the TV, the book is missing information about using online and social media sources of information – there’s little in this book which couldn’t have been written 20 years ago. On a related note, the book takes the now fairly dated approach of tacking climate change on to the end as a bit of an afterthought –weather, climate and climate change are inexorably linked and I would have been happier seeing it integrated into the rest of the book.

This book should appeal to many young people and would be a good, solid addition to any primary school library.

This review has also been published in Weather

Categories
Secondary Weather

Tropical Continental Air Mass and Saharan Dust

This morning, skies were orange/ beige across much of England as a Tropical continental (Tc) air mass brought Saharan dust. 

Saharan Dust on Windscreen

Image credit: Geoff Jenkins

Read more about why the air was carrying so much dust, and see some stunning photos from Spain and France here. The further the air travelled, the more dust was deposited and the less dust remained in the air – so the most vivid skies were in the south. 

Read our guide to air masses for background information or show our YouTube explainer

weather chart 16th March 2022

How can you tell that there is Tc air from this weather chart (midnight on 16th March 2022)? 

The air approximately follows the isobars, shown as thin lines on this chart. To work out which way, you need to look at the pressure systems and remember that air goes clockwise around anticyclones (H) and anticlockwise around cyclones (L). 

Considering either the 962mbar Low or the 1033mbar High shows you that the air is coming from the south (a southerly wind) across England.

Following the isobar marked 1020 back, you can see that the air has come over Spain from Africa. This is a Tropical continental air mass.

Behind the occluded front, for much of Ireland, the wind coming from the west. The 1020mbar Low is a bit misleading, but you can see that the air coming up from the south diverts to curve round it in an anticlockwise flow. 

Tc weather chart
Categories
Research Science Secondary

Resources for Mars Day

Mars not dusty

14th March 2022 is Mars Day

Establishing the radiation or energy budget of the Earth has been crucial to understanding climate change, but what do the radiation budgets of Mars and other planets in our solar system look like? Read about it in this article from Physics Review or this one from Science in School

You can find the energy budget images for all the planets mentioned here

Categories
Books Secondary

Book Review: the Weather Detectives

Weather Detectives
 
The Weather Detectives
Author: Michael Erb
Year: 2021
Publisher: Tumblehome, Inc. 
Suggested age range: 9-12
Price: £11.99
Set in the Caribbean, this book sees two young people and their associates set out to investigate some mysterious stories surrounding a cruise ship and its captain. 
Interspersed through the story are excepts from a weather guide being written by one of the characters. In many ways these are the best bits of the book – engaging and well written. It’s just a shame that they don’t really link in to the story.  Given the title, I was expecting the weather, or these asides, to provide clues which the protagonists could use to solve the mystery. 
It was tricky to suggest an age range for this book. The plot line is not very sophisticated, and it’s a short read, but the vocabulary is quite advanced in places. Fans of other mysteries aimed at this age range, such as those written by Lauren St. John, Lauren Child or Robin Stevens, would be disappointed.  
Written for an American audience, the only issue for a reader from another country would be not knowing what the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) is – one of the ‘clues’ is related to this.  
The author has written other books and supplied some suggested related activities at https://www.weatherdetectives.org
Categories
Climate Change Secondary

New Resource for International Women’s Day 2022

Sustainable development goals 5 and 13

We have created a new resource in time for International Women’s Day 2022, exploring the links between two of the Sustainable Development Goals – gender equality, and climate action.

Taking information from this weeks’ InterGovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report on Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability as well as some of the relevant highlights fromCOP26, teachers can adapt the resource to suit their class.